


long way down

by clareironbrook



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-10-14 08:43:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17505338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clareironbrook/pseuds/clareironbrook
Summary: "I should let you go, just to keep you from destroying my facility any further. But I remembered something important." Her voice dropped into a dangerously low octave. "You're the last test subject I have left. Without you, I can't do Science."GLaDOS doesn't release Chell after regaining the facility.





	1. Chapter 1

  
For a few blissful seconds after Chell regained consciousness, she didn't remember where she was. The pain was the first thing she registered- her insides felt like they’d been scraped out with sandpaper, and the rest of her felt like she’d been run over. Her head was spinning, temporarily blotting out any other thought.

It came crashing back all too fast. The fight, the explosion, the last-ditch effort she hadn't thought would actually work, and- space. Holding on for her life, and being dragged back in, by...

Chell opened her eyes. She was lying flat on her back on the floor, and the vaulted ceiling of dark panels above her confirmed where she still was. She rolled over- to see GLaDOS staring at her intently.

_"Oh, thank god you're all right. You know, being Caroline taught me a valuable lesson. I thought you were my greatest enemy, when all along you were my best friend."_

Well, that was it. Either the brain damage she was supposed to have had finally kicked in, or oxygen deprivation was messing with her head.

_"The surge of emotion that shot through me when I saved your life taught me an even more valuable lesson: where Caroline lives in my brain."_

A long, low beep, and the system announcer voice: _"Caroline deleted."_

That was more like it, Chell thought- while, quietly, something inside her crumpled. 

_"You know what my days used to be like?"_ said GLaDOS, returning to her usual, lightly threatening tone. _"I just tested. Nobody murdered me, or put me into a potato, or fed me to birds. I had a pretty good life. And then you showed up- you dangerous, mute lunatic. I should let you go, just to keep you from destroying my facility any further._  

_"But I remembered something important."_ Her voice dropped into a dangerously low octave. _"You're the last test subject I have left. Without you, I can't do Science."_

Chell hauled herself up, muscles screaming in protest- to do what, she didn't know- but GLaDOS was already prepared. Chell didn't get two steps before glass walls descended around her- just like the last trap, right in this spot. She collided with the glass, pounding ineffectually.

_"Don't try to escape again while I rebuild the facility,"_  said GLaDOS casually.

Chell could do nothing but fix her with a hateful glare as the chamber slid away.

 

\---

 

_"You know, I don't have to simulate a natural daylight cycle for you. If I wanted you to stay awake, I would add adrenal vapor to your air supply."_

Chell stared at the ceiling, ignoring the tinny voice. Her comments were even more irritating here than in a test chamber- there was nothing to distract herself with.

She was confined in a Long-Term Relaxation Chamber, the same vintage-hotel-room model she'd woken up in the last time she'd been in stasis. She'd been dumped here (literally, through the ceiling) three days ago, by her count. Even that relied on the artificial daylight reflecting a 24-hour cycle. There was no real way to tell.

She refused to get in the bed. The last time she was in one of those beds, she slept for an untold amount of time, longer than she was sure she wanted to know. The first day, she'd searched for a way out of the chamber, fruitlessly trying to force the door open. When she gave up on that, she'd stood vigil as long as she could, then switched to sitting on the floor. 

( _"This relaxation chamber is not set up for stasis,"_ GLaDOS had said, rare annoyance slipping into her voice. _"It isn't even connected to the mainframe. The bed is not functional as a stasis unit. Are you even listening to me?"_ )

Down in the bowels of the old facility, GLaDOS had made her a deal: freedom, in exchange for putting her back in charge. Chell could have left her there, but she didn't- not because she had really believed her, but because she was alone ten thousand feet below the surface. If she even found a way back to the Enrichment Center, much less took down Wheatley, she could worry about it then.

And then they had found out about Caroline. What had she thought- that it would change her? That their brief time as allies would mean anything once she had her precious body and facility back?

She should have learned- should have learned the first time, when she'd finished her first testing track only to be pushed into the incinerator. Then she'd trusted Wheatley, who had seemed so human, who had asked for her help- and then turned on her.

Even if she wouldn't have drop-kicked Wheatley into a pit as soon as lay eyes on him again, he had come back for her when she needed help. There was no one coming for her now.

 

\---

 

_"You should know I'm not planning on sending you back to the testing tracks. So there's that."_

Chell opened her eyes. She was sitting with her back against the light-panel ‘window’, her feet outstretched towards the bed.

_"You are too valuable to Science for me to let you go, but the risk factors involved in allowing you to test again are too high, based on previous data. By which I mean that every time you have ever entered a testing track, the end result was catastrophic damage to myself and the facility. So we're not doing that again."_

Chell flicked her eyes towards the ceiling- the only indication she would give that she was listening.

_"Obviously this is a problem, since you're the only human I have. But I've been working on a solution."_

Without warning, the entire room shuddered, swaying as the chamber began to move on its rail. Chell threw a hand into the carpet to keep herself upright- if she'd been standing she might have fallen on her face.

The last time this had happened to her, it had been Wheatley steering- chattering away the whole time, making her post-suspension headache much worse- and the room had shredded itself around her as he collided it with every relaxation chamber and wall in the vicinity. GLaDOS was a more competent driver- they weren’t hitting anything, at least.

They probably weren't even in the relaxation wing. The facility was huge- GLaDOS could have put her anywhere. She might have been hanging over a bottomless pit, for all she knew.

The floor tilted a little more intensely as the room decelerated, swinging to a halt. A few more jolts as something locked into place around the walls, and then it was still. 

The door's lock clicked open. Chell stared.

_"Like I said, I'm not sending you back into testing,"_ GLaDOS said. _"I brought you here to show you something. Can you suppress your pathological need to destroy things long enough for that?"_

The tone in GLaDOS' voice was not one Chell had ever heard before. It sounded...contrite wasn't the right word, the day GLaDOS apologized for anything would be the day the universe collapsed- but it sounded like she was trying to be straightforward with her intentions, and possibly struggling with it a little.

She still didn't trust her, but she definitely couldn't start coming up with an escape plan inside that room, not to mention that she might actually lose her mind stuck in there much longer. She opened the door- onto a catwalk in a dimly-lit passage. 

GLaDOS illuminated the lights ahead of her as she walked, pointing the way.  _"I've been repairing the damage that moron did to my facility,"_ she said.  _"I've restructured the entire transport pipe system, rebuilt the wings he set on fire...not to mention the entire relaxation wing he failed to maintain for decades._

_"But it's given me the chance to put the finishing touches on a project I've been working on for awhile."_

Chell reached a door, which cycled open for her, and went through- into a cavernous open space. Dark grey panel walls floated around, patchwork-like, and a shaft bearing a six-story Aperture Laboratories logo cut through one corner. The backsides of more walls, held up by rows of white, glowing arms, were visible. Beyond those, hazy open space.

_"This used to be the wing made entirely of glass. It didn't stand a chance. Oh well. Welcome to the Computer Intelligence Training and Enrichment Center Human Test Subject Research Center- or CinTech. Or just ‘the hub’.”_

Panels folded up from below, making her a path to the main platform in the center of the room. There was a massive bank of screens on the wall above, two high by ten long, each at least a story tall. Chell felt very vulnerable in a space like this without a portal gun. She wasn’t even wearing shoes.

The giant screens turned on, and three lines of text- white on a dull orange background- appeared.

_APERTURE LABORATORIES ENRICHMENT CENTER ACTIVITY:_  
_HUMAN-ASSISTED CO-OPERATIVE TESTING INITIATIVE_  
_BEGIN? Y/N_

A loud beep echoed around the room. Somewhere in the distance, something came to life with a deep hum.

_"They'll be ready by the time you get there,"_  GLaDOS said cryptically. A door in an alcove to Chell's left opened. As she walked over to it, she noticed the exit points of two transport pipes in the ceiling above. It led to another dark catwalk, twisting around the backsides of chamber walls. Bays of panel arms, a single blue eye glowing on each, pressed in around her. 

It led her to a stairway, ending in a door which opened onto a small room. She had been inside one like it before, just never with permission- a desk in one corner, a screen hanging in another, one wall of glass she knew was wavy and frosted from the other side, concealing the viewers within. A test observation room. 

Below, in the test chamber, two doors on either side of a glass partition opened, admitting two robots. One was wide and stocky, with a blue optic in a round core; the other was tall and skinny, with a yellow optic in an ovoid, turret-like core. Both had spindly limbs, arms set up high on their core, and one arm ended in a portal gun instead of a hand.

_"Meet the Co-operative Testing Initiative,"_  said GLaDOS.

The screen in the room turned on, displaying two sets of schematics side-by-side of the same two robots. Chell noted the headings _ATLAS_ (for the short one) and _P-BODY_  (for the tall one).

Below, the robots were doing a simple test, placing portals and stepping onto buttons. Chell immediately noticed the difference between this chamber and a typical one- they had to work together to complete it. Cooperative testing.

_"I've been working on them for some time. Just before you escaped the last time,"_ GLaDOS continued. _"It's something I came up with to phase out human testing. I was planning on having- well, the rest of your life- to refine them. And then...you know what happened. I'm accelerating the timeline."_

The robots completed the chamber, and the screen switched to the feed from the next chamber, following their progress. 

_"They're based on simple core constructs, so they're sentient. Excellent with problem-solving. They're literally built to work together. And best of all, I can rebuild them if they die. They're only missing one thing."_

GLaDOS paused. On the screen, the robots were depositing cubes into receptacles.

_"I can't program them to think the way a human does,"_ she said. _"Creatively. But they might be able to learn it by exposure. If you teach them."_

Chell turned to stare at the camera.

_"Listen. I'm not stupid. I know you're angry. But be reasonable. When I made that deal, I was in a makeshift core powered by a root vegetable. Also, if you hadn't helped me, we all would have died in a horrible nuclear explosion. I think the ends justified the means. And I really am desperate here. You're the last human I have- which also means I now have a vested interest in keeping you alive._

_"So let's make another deal. With both of us in complete control of our faculties this time. I mean, I assume you are. You help me train the Co-operative Testing Initiative. I lied when I said I wasn't sending you out on the testing tracks- but I'm not testing you, I'm testing them. It's still deadly- it's barely Science otherwise. But I'm confident in your abilities._

_"And if they complete their training? I might be open to some...re-negotiation of your contract."_ GLaDOS paused, to let her meaning sink in. _"Deal?"_

GLaDOS might have been phrasing it as though Chell had a choice, but she knew she didn't. What would happen if she refused- would she send her back to testing, or lock her up in that relaxation chamber forever, or put her back in stasis? And even though she was dangling her freedom in front of her like a carrot, she knew better than to believe that. Again.

She didn't even know how she was supposed to teach two robots to test- but on the testing tracks she could start looking for a way to escape. She'd done it twice, three times if you counted escaping Wheatley's only-semi-deadly death trap. She could do it again. And this time, she'd find her way to the surface or die trying.

She took a deep breath, and nodded.

_"...All right,"_ said GLaDOS, as if she were mildly surprised Chell had agreed without a fight.  _"Calibration is finished. This way."_

Chell followed the lights back down the stairs, further down the catwalk and around a corner, where a chamber door opened for her. It was a small antechamber to the calibration course, with a test chamber sign reading _00_. Two doors were on the opposite wall. 

_"I suppose you'll need these,"_ said GLaDOS. _"I expect that you won't use it to go anywhere you don't need to be."_

A floor panel in front of Chell folded away, and two familiar objects rose in its place: her portal gun, clipped to a pedestal, and her Long Fall Boots, resting against its base. They were definitely hers, she thought as she fastened the boots on her legs and picked up the gun- the battle damage they had seen evident in the worn enamel of the gun's shell and the toes of the boots. The unease she had been feeling evaporated as soon as it was in her hand, her fingers fitting perfectly on the triggers.

The door opened again behind her, and ATLAS and P-BODY walked in, their metallic footsteps loud. ATLAS was as tall as she was- she was eye level with the tops of its shoulders- and P-BODY probably had a foot on her. ATLAS seemed unsure of her, making what sounded like apprehensive noises and keeping its distance, while P-BODY bounded right up, its optic darting to analyze her, warbling cheerfully. 

_"Now that you have passed calibration with each other, you will now complete the course with a human test subject,"_   said GLaDOS to the robots. _"This is the first time that collaborative portal-, cube-, and button-based testing has ever been attempted with a human and a core construct. We're doing real Science here today._

_"She is- statistically- the highest-scoring test subject in Aperture Science Enrichment Center history."_ (Chell glanced at the ceiling, not even hiding her surprise at the unprecedented praise.) _"Just so you appreciate the caliber of training you're receiving. And- do_ not _break her."_

(Behind her, ATLAS had been slowly extending his portal gun to experimentally poke her in the back. Chell shot the bot a warning look.)

_"All right, Orange, you'll go first. Let's begin."_

 

\--

 

Less than an hour later, Chell walked out of the calibration course for the second time, ATLAS following behind.

_"Congratulations. You have both passed calibration with a human test subject,"_ said GLaDOS. _"And, human test subject, you have passed calibration with Blue and Orange. Well done."_

Chell wasn't even winded, even after running the course twice. It had been simple, even adjusting for the cooperative aspect, and the bots had passed with flying colors. 

_"Tomorrow, we'll start your real testing. Unlike you, humans need rest and nourishment to function at optimal levels. Or adrenal vapor. Anyway, I have to reconfigure all of the test chambers for three test subjects before you can train with her. You know, just something that has never been done in the history of Science. They'll be ready in a few hours."_

ATLAS and P-BODY bounded away, towards two stations set into opposite sides of the wall. A multitude of tool-bearing arms emerged from each and neatly disassembled them in a matter of seconds, dropping their cores into the pipe below.

An elevator was waiting for her on the far end of the room. She stepped in, the doors closed, and it shot up in silence. When it opened, she was looking at her relaxation chamber, at the end of a short catwalk, door still open as she'd left it.

_"This chamber is not going to activate if you sleep in it,"_ said GLaDOS. _"It's not connected to the appropriate systems. Look at the status panel."_

Chell approached the chamber. There was an illuminated readout on the outside wall next to the door, with a blinking red light.

_Aperture Laboratories Extended Relaxation Chamber_  
_(TM) 1960 - Pat. Pend._  
_Power Supply: Connected, Active_  
_Relaxation Status: Not Connected - Not Configured. Error- please contact an Enrichment Center engineer or Relaxation Center attendant._  
_Status: Not ready for long-term subject storage. Stasis interface not found. Wake timer not set._

_"Are you satisfied?"_  GLaDOS said.

Even if she wasn't, Chell had little choice but to believe her. She stepped into the room, set the portal gun down next to the bed, and- after a moment of consideration- sat down, loosened and slipped off the long-fall boots, and lay down on the bed.

She was going to need rest for testing. Tomorrow, she'd start planning. Chell curled up on the edge of the bed, portal gun within arm's reach, and immediately fell asleep.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I will hopefully be able to get the next few chapters out faster, over my school break.
> 
> I forgot to note this before- a lot of GLaDOS' dialogue (for the first few chapters) is quoted or paraphrased from the actual co-op campaign, which I, obviously, did not write.
> 
> Happy 8th birthday week, Portal 2!

The last time Chell had woken in a Long-Term Relaxation Chamber bed, she’d known something was very wrong before she’d even opened her eyes.

Her first time in short-term stasis had been unpleasant enough- she’d emerged with a bone-deep feeling of cold that lingered on the chilly testing tracks. Waking the second time had been something else entirely. She hadn’t just felt cold, she’d felt half-dead- nauseous and sluggish, with a pounding headache.

She wasn’t feeling any of that now. She felt the familiar burn of physical activity from the calibration tests, on top of the lingering pains from her previous injuries. Other than that, she felt…fine.

Chell opened her eyes. A soft morning-like light filled the room.

_“You have slept for eleven hours, twenty-three minutes and eight seconds,”_ said GLaDOS. _“On average, humans sleep for eight hours at a time, but you_ have _been awake for longer than normal recently.”_

Chell slowly stretched out her limbs, wincing as her muscles complained- she’d ended up in an awkward fetal position on the bed, knees drawn to her chest and one arm extended over the edge, towards the portal gun still lying on the floor.

_“Did you know sleep debt can cause weight gain in humans?”_ GLaDOS hummed thoughtfully. _“You wouldn’t want that.”_

Ignoring the jab, Chell sat up in the bed. As GLaDOS had said, she hadn’t been in stasis. She’d even been allowed to sleep, uninterrupted, for as long as she needed.

GLaDOS hadn’t lied about the chamber being active, or at least about activating it while she slept. Maybe for the first time, it hadn’t been a trap.

A panel in the ceiling slid open with a whir, and a mechanical arm lowered, dropping its cargo on the bed and retracting again. Chell reached over and picked it up. It was a can, with an Aperture-standard black-and-white label reading BEANS.

_“I went to the trouble of testing their suitability for human consumption. There’s a 99.8 percent chance they’re not irradiated.”_

Chell stared at the can. Her feeling of unease continued to crystallize, as she realized why all of this was wrong- wrong like the simulated sunlight coming through the window panels.

GLaDOS had never once allowed her any kind of comfort. She’d been pushed to the limits by adrenal vapor, forced to escape the tracks just to rest, and she’d learned a long time ago not to expect any kind of help or reward- until now.

Chell knew that GLaDOS was far too smart not to be expecting her to try to escape. She was trying to make Chell forget she was still a prisoner, that she’d broken her promise to let her go in the first place.

She knew one other thing, too- GLaDOS hadn’t been lying about needing her for this project. She wouldn’t be going to the trouble otherwise.

Regardless of her level of trust in GLaDOS- or in a decades-old can- she was going to need real food to get through more testing. She could take advantage of it while it lasted, but she wasn’t going to forget.

She popped the ring-top open and, lacking a utensil, tipped the contents straight into her mouth. It was, indeed, just beans- seemingly edible, though bland- but it was the best thing she could remember eating in a long time.

_“The new tests are ready,”_ said GLaDOS. _“We’ll begin when you get to the Hub.”_

Finishing the beans- she wished she had something to drink, but that might be a little too much to ask- Chell swung her legs around the side of the bed. She reached for the Long-Fall Boots and strapped them on, then picked up the portal gun.

When she walked out of the chamber, the elevator was waiting for her, and it took her to the co-operative testing hub. The cavernous room was empty, again, the massive bank of screens above idling on the Aperture logo.

Then she heard the low whistle of an object moving through a pneumatic tube, and ATLAS and P-BODY dropped from the two tubes in the ceiling on the far side of the room, landing with the loud chunk of four robot feet hitting the floor at terminal velocity.

As soon as they joined her on the center platform, a set of stairs folded out of the floor nearby, leading up to a chamber door. The two robots trotted towards the door without prompting; Chell followed behind.

Inside was a short hallway. To the left, panels folded away to reveal a screen bearing a large 01, with a grid of numbers underneath representing (most likely) a sequence of tests. Another set of screens rapidly scrolled orange code.

Further ahead was the same setup from the end of the calibration test- the two stations for the robots, and an elevator at the end. ATLAS and P-BODY obediently stepped into the chambers, and were swiftly disassembled and whisked away.

(As Chell walked past them and stepped into the elevator, she wondered why- if all the chambers were connected to the tube system- why they’d been assembled and sent to the hub only to walk a hundred feet and be disassembled again. She shook her head. Some things in the facility just weren’t worth trying to figure out.)

She exited the elevator again to a familiar sight: a gray wall bearing a tall white sign, displaying the chamber number and a series of hazard icons. Just ahead, ATLAS and P-BODY dropped from their tubes.

_“Hello again,”_ said GLaDOS, as they entered the chamber. _“This testing course was originally created for humans. It emphasizes teamwork. Unlike us- I mean, core constructs- humans need to be taught teamwork._

_“It takes some humans,”_ she added pointedly, _“longer to learn this skill than others.”_

Chell had long tuned her out, taking in her surroundings. Besides the calibration course from the day before, she hadn’t been in a real test chamber in a while. It felt like a lifetime- but had really only been a matter of days- since she’d escaped GLaDOS’ last testing track.

Given how many tests she’d faced, it would seem that she shouldn’t be intimidated by it anymore- but the truth was, she felt a thrill of fear every time she walked into a new test chamber, and she’d be stupid not to. She didn’t let it show, channeled it into her determination to succeed. In an Aperture test chamber, there was only one other option.

Facing a new testing track yet again, she wanted to run, to escape right now- but she had to keep her end of this deal for the time being. Wait for the right time. The next time she broke out, it was going to be the last time.

ATLAS and P-BODY were looking at her, waiting on her to begin. She stepped forward, onto the button in the center of the chamber, to begin the test.

  
\---

  
As she had guessed, the co-operative tests were more difficult than anything she’d faced before, and she’d solved tests made of half-assembled chambers pushed together.

She’d correctly pinpointed the most technically challenging aspect as soon as she’d seen it in the calibration test- not just multiple test subjects, but multiple portals. A single set of portals was already a physics-defying, brain-bending concept, and she thought she’d mastered it, until now.

Now she and each of the robots had an individual pair of portals to use- for a total of _six_ in play at any given time- and the new tests made full use of all of them. Keeping up with them was stretching her test-solving skills to the limit.

ATLAS and P-BODY had seemingly come equipped with a basic understanding of testing, but beyond an intrinsic knowledge of how to use a portal gun and manipulate test elements, they didn’t know much.

They were oddly like a pair of large children, fumbling their way around the chambers. The first time one of them had fallen into acid, dying in a quick burst of sparks, she’d felt a shock of fear, despite herself- and then embarrassed, when they dropped back into the chamber a minute later.

(She did stay on her toes, ready to throw a portal up, any time she was in a hazardous situation. They had the tendency to drop each other from high places by accident.)

Thankfully, they weren’t ignoring her- they’d clearly been directed to pay attention to her, and seemed to understand she was the experienced one. When she placed portals or pointed to where they should go, they followed her lead without question.

Which brought her to the challenge that she hadn’t thought of before: given that they were robots who didn’t speak and she was a human who wasn’t willing to speak, communication beyond simple directions was still a puzzle.

The robots seemed to have some kind of built-in communication, which made sense, given that they’d literally been made for testing together. The chirps and beeps they made seemed to make sense to them, but it was lost on her.

She didn’t even know if they’d understand spoken direction. GLaDOS spoke to them during tests, but more to offer her usual cryptic commentary than any kind of instruction.

(She seemed to have decided that continuing to insult Chell would be counterproductive, and had redirected it onto ATLAS and P-BODY. They didn’t seem to understand or notice.)

_“Very good,”_ she commented at the end of one test. _“You’ve really come together as a team. Thanks to the one of you who appears to be doing all the work.”_

Chell was waiting at the end of the chamber for the robots to arrive. Each of them had to solve a section on their own, retrieve an Edgeless Safety Cube, and deposit it at the exit.

Just as GLaDOS finished her sentence, ATLAS skidded into the room, spherical testing element suspended in its gun’s gravity field.

_“Blue receives five science collaboration points,”_ said GLaDOS coolly, as it trotted to the receptacle and dropped it in. A chime sounded, changing the second of three blue Xs on the wall to an orange check-mark.

Chell walked over to join ATLAS in the middle of the room. It didn’t really acknowledge her presence- it was bouncing lightly, holding its portal gun close to its chest. They waited a few minutes in silence.

Then- Chell couldn’t have said where it had come from, or why she had actually tried it- she had an idea. Impulsively, she turned to ATLAS and held up one hand, palm facing it.

ATLAS turned at her motion with a chitter of surprise. It stared, eye flicking from her hand to her face, confused.

She pointed at ATLAS firmly, then held up her hand again. It looked at her hesitantly, then slowly raised its own four-fingered hand. She firmly tapped her palm to its metal-and-ceramic one.

Pointing at the orange check on the wall, she made a thumbs-up, then held her hand up again.

ATLAS looked at its own hand, then hers, then the check-mark. It reached out, slowly- and high-fived her, making a happy warbling sound.

Footsteps echoed up the corridor, and P-BODY arrived, Safety Cube in tow. ATLAS dashed over to its companion to demonstrate what it had learned.

A few chambers later, Chell caught the two robots stopping to high-five after tackling a particularly difficult test element.

_“I don’t know what you think you are doing,”_ said GLaDOS, _“but I want you to stop.”_

On the other side of the chamber, Chell waited until she was hidden from a camera before laughing to herself.

  
\---

 

Chell’s days passed in more or less the same way. When GLaDOS called a stop to testing for the day, she went back to her Relaxation Chamber and, usually, fell straight asleep. She’d wake, and eat, and start over again.

A few weeks into the new tests- even with no adrenal vapor and regular sleep, Chell had started losing track of time- she walked into the Hub with the bots to find a different chamber door open to them.

_“I think you have earned a break from the official testing courses,”_ said GLaDOS.

The antechamber had been changed from its usual setup- the elevator had been replaced with the opening of a pneumatic tube. The sound of rushing air was loud in the small room. Unaffected, the bots stepped into their disassembly pods and disappeared.

_“Well, go on,”_ said GLaDOS, when Chell hesitated. She crossed the room and stepped into the tube, and was immediately swept downwards at breakneck speed.

She exited the tube through the ceiling of a massive chamber, the floor hundreds of feet below. She could see ATLAS and P-BODY waiting on a large platform below. Bracing herself in midair, she easily landed on her feet, the Long-Fall Boots absorbing her impact.

She straightened and turned around to look properly. Walls of natural rock enclosed the collection of platforms, catwalks, and tubes they’d landed on. Rusty scaffolds stretched high above and far below.

_“Sometimes testing has to occur outside the confines of the lab.”_ GLaDOS’ voice was tinny in the old speakers. _“I can’t- I mean, won’t- tell you what you’re looking for. You will know it when you find it.”_

Chell hadn’t ever thought she’d see the old facility again, nor had she wanted to. Apparently, GLaDOS had taken advantage of the systems Chell had turned back on while making her way out before.

The bots had already sprung into action, flinging themselves across the catwalks ahead and returning with a reflector cube. P-BODY carried it to the active laser on one side of the platform, redirecting it through an opening. A siren sounded, and the massive fan dominating one side of the chamber began to slow.

Chell took the hint, positioning a portal high on the wall behind her and jumping through another to fling herself through the inactive fan. Landing in the dark, dingy space behind it, she turned to see a door marked _Authorized Personnel Only_.

She walked through the door, and found herself in an abandoned workspace. Tables scattered around the room held ancient PCs, servers were pushed up against the walls, and a pile of monitors lay in a corner. Like many similar rooms she’d found before, it was remarkably untouched by time.

Crossing the room- passing a yellowing poster that said _You may work with robots, but you can’t take a bullet like one!_ \- she turned a corner into another space, lined with file cabinets on one wall and windows on the other.

Chell paused for a moment, taking in the expanse of the cavern below. She knew from experience how far down the facility went. Even if GLaDOS had reconnected some of it with the Enrichment Center, there was no way she had enough control to follow Chell if she decided to run.

She was also much further away from the surface, and she’d have to find her way out of here only to reach the modern parts of the facility again- and GLaDOS would know where she was as soon as she set foot in it. It wasn’t an ideal plan.

Down on the platform, P-BODY redirected the laser again, hitting the wall next to Chell through the windows. Chell placed a portal on the spot, then returned to the other room.

As she did, she noticed something she hadn’t before- a standing whiteboard against the wall. In the middle of a mess of equations and graphs, someone had scrawled a message.

_THEIR LIVES ARE IN OUR HANDS._

Slowly approaching it, Chell raised a hand to touch the board’s surface. The ancient ink brushed away like dust, transferring onto her fingertips. It had been a long time since she’d seen human handwriting, evidence that another living person had ever been here.

Forcing herself to turn away, she placed her other portal on the wall opposite the laser receptacle marked Fan Shutdown. Moments later, the bots were joining her in the room. The door opened, and they walked up a set of metal stairs into another room.

Ten or so chairs were pointed at a bare wall; a boxy projector hung from the ceiling above them, and a table next to the chairs held several electronic devices, thick cords extending up to the projector. The far side of the room was a jumble of desks, pushed together.

A robotic squawk caught Chell’s attention- P-BODY was pointing at one of the desks. A large disc was lying there. ATLAS hurried over, peering at it curiously.

Chell picked up the disc- dusty, but undamaged- and carried it back to the center of the room, flanked by the bots. Examining one of the devices on the table, she inserted it into the slot. The box hummed, and the projector flickered to life.

As images began to flicker across the screen, Chell’s eyes wandered around the room- and settled on another whiteboard in the corner.

_Do not upload the V-237 schematics!_ it said, in the middle of rows of equations.

_“I do need you to be in the room so I can see them, but there is no reason whatsoever for you to look at them,”_ said GLaDOS, from a speaker overhead.

Chell looked back at the projected images. They looked a lot like schematics of some kind.

_“And…done. Oh. I almost forgot,”_ said GLaDOS. _“When you go outside the testing courses, the only way for me to retrieve you is to violently disassemble you, and then carefully reassemble you. Luckily, you don’t feel pain.”_

ATLAS chirped- and then exploded. Chell ducked, shielding her face, as P-BODY followed suit. When she looked up, wisps of smoke rose from where each robot had previously been standing, a scattering of twisted metallic parts as evidence.

_“You, on the other hand, I have to bring back up the pneumatic tubes,”_ GLaDOS finished, sounding vaguely disappointed. _“I’m sure you can get back to the platform on your own.”_

A few minutes later, Chell emerged in the hub again, and boarded the elevator waiting for her. She glared in the ceiling’s general direction as it activated and began to rise.

_“Is this about Blue and Orange? I’m restoring their cores from backup right now. They’re fine,”_ GLaDOS said. _“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re getting attached to them.”_

Chell did nothing, not confirming or denying anything she’d said. Regardless of what she thought of the two robots, they didn’t deserve to be blown up without warning. The unexpected explosion in close quarters hadn’t done anything for her mood, either.

Walking into the Relaxation Chamber, she set the portal gun down on the floor and took off the Long-Fall Boots, the actions now mechanical. Her mind was far away, still in the little office far underground. The uneasy feeling in her gut only grew as she climbed into her bed.

What had GLaDOS sent them back into the old facility to retrieve, and why hadn’t the long-dead engineers wanted it to be found?

 

 


End file.
